Yes, THAT one, with the gender stereotypes that belong to the era of your inception, 1932. Welcome, friends, to 2013 – here you will find that most parents HATE these limiting roles.

Here, not all little girls are doll-obsessed, and some of them want to grow up to change the world too. Pink is a colour that belongs to all children, and not every little boy wants to climb and fight.

When I see adverts like yours I despair. How is it possible this kind of repressed perspective is still out there? Let alone boldly stalking amongst us promoting Flakey Morsels of the Dawn to young children.

When I feel this gutted about the state of the world I have to act. I firstly tweeted, then I sent you an email. But all afternoon I have been feeling the need to do something more, to really try and make you see how sickening this stereotyping is.

So I popped a little something in the post for you.

I am not sure how my protest- post will go down. For the ten minutes I spent writing the letter and packaging her up I thought it was a bit funny and clever, that postpeople along the way might think “Oooh, what sexist antics have Weetabix been up to?” I hoped it might just grab your attention and prompt a response from you.

And then, I have to admit, as soon as I saw her feet disappear into the mouth of the letterbox I suddenly wondered if you might think it sent by a Barbie-maiming psycho- that it might even contain Anthrax. (It doesn’t, promise.)

I’m not a Barbie-maiming psycho, just an irate mum who is utterly sick and tired of having her young daughter put in these boxes by big companies. With the huge amounts of money you throw into marketing, you are EXTREMELY influential in how our children define themselves.

I may do all I can to help Ramona celebrate all colours, to find joy in millions of kinds of toys, but if she is bombarded every day by images that tell her girls should like one thing and boys another, my own nurturing counts for little.

We are massive fans of Weetabix in this household (only in non-porridge season, OBVIOUSLY!) but until this ad is placed on the Shameful Shelf of Relics where it belongs we will not be buying your slightly-tasteless-but-still-somehow-delectable breakfast.

I look forward to your response.

Yours Sincerely,

Lucy, and Ramona, and also every cereal-munching child in the world who deserves better.

I am Lucy - a writer, mama, activist and vintage lover. (Especially nice old typewriters.) A huge thank you to my supporters on Patreon who make my writing and videos happen. You can join that wonderful bunch for as little as $1. On this blog I share all my tips on natural, toxin-free living and wild and joyful parenting - all from a yurt in New Zealand. Keep in touch through Instagram, Facebook or Youtube.
Do stick around, I'll show you my typewriters...

Lol!i haven’t seen the advert,but look forward to it!We had a sales assistent offer a balloon to my youngest today,but told him he could choose from yellow or blue-the pink one was for girls!!!As if people still think like this!it’s rather worrying really.Xx

If you want a replacement Doves Farm do some very similar ‘whole-wheat cereal biscuits’ (we switched a while back and Kit hasn’t noticed the difference!). 🙂Bek @ WeAreWildThings recently posted…The Gruffalo’s Child

Lou! You are fab. I have mentioned that I am REALLY struggling with this very issue right now, because my pink, sparkly, fairy, tiara, dress loving son is pushing hard to be what he wants to be. I WISH the world had caught up with your thinking already. I wonder what will happen? I haven’t seen the ad and I wont be seeking it out, but from your descriptive I wholeheartedly concur.
Val
xxxValerie recently posted…Oh Spring

My son is four and my husband and I have done our best to raise him with as many gender neutral toys as possible; with the idea that there is no such thing as a “boy toy” or a “girl toy.” He has cars and dolls. He loves Hello Kitty and Spider Man and often HK and Spidey have adventures together!

It is tough to break the gender stereotypes and, in some respects, I think it is harder for boys. If a girl plays with cars, she is a cute “tom boy.” If a boy plays with dolls he is a “sissy” or “momma’s boy” or other such term with very negative connotations.

I’m glad there are other parents out there fighting the good fight.

(Hi. I’m new to your blog–I googled “no shampoo” a few days ago and your blog was one of the first on the list. I’m enjoying your posts.)

I really agree, I think it is hard on them both but at least girls would only get negative feedback from peers- boys who like “girls” stuff will find themselves bombarded by adults too I’m afraid.
Good on you for doing all you can 🙂Lucy recently posted…Some post for Weetabix – it’s pretty, pink and Barbie-based

This is fabulous 🙂 The advert is vile. I kept expecting someone to pop up and say *joke* but sadly they didn’t. Even when they showed the girl writing – it had to be in a pink diary and about a boy (and how old is she?? surely too young to be “hearting” boys) – have sent them an email via their website – link can we found on twitter if you search “weetabix”

I have to say I am with Michelle on this. My boys both had pink prams and dollys when they were younger and the amount of people that commented that I was turning them in to “sissies” was unbelievable!

Unfortunately children figure the colour and gender stereotyping very early and even though I raised by boys not to mind, Maxi aged eight had a fit in Disney as he got a princess cup and people had been calling him a girl cause of his long hair. A lot of it is down to parents saying things to their children.

Yeah, parents can be unthinking too, eh? A friend was saying how she was at a chum’s house and their little girl came along in fancy dress and said “I’m a Doctor” and the MUM corrected her “Nope, you be a NURSE darling, you are a girl!” Oh, geez, I just about wept hearing that!

I get the most grumbles from my family, of all thIngs! From the start of my pregnancy, my husband and I discussed the way we wanted to raise our child, boy or girl. One of the major things we were firm about was trying to be as gender neutral as possible. . . That and no guns or army or other such violent toys. When the boy popped out, my father and aunts and uncles were SHOCKED about our no gun rule. “Litle boys NEED to play with guns! They have to play ‘cops and robbers’ and ‘cowboys and indians!’ How can you deprive him of such things??”

We live in the US. In Connecticut. In a town 10 minutes away from Newtown/Sandy Hook. After four years of fighting with my family, they finally understood, or at least agreed with, our stand against violent toys.

Stereotypes stink and we’re doing everything we can to break out of the box

You’re right, that advert is detestable. It also makes kids in general look horrible and i hated the vile sibling rivalry it’s pushing too. We changed the ending so they shared it half and half – why couldn’t wetabix be a bit more creative in their thinking?

We also HATE HATE HATE the stupid ad at the start of Peppa Pig, which our daughter watches at least ten times a day, due to the watching of endless reruns and the five-minute nature of the programme (a little girl playing with dolls and prancing around pretending to go to the ball). We try and wind it forward but somehow it still seems to make an impact. Compounded by the equally sexist mature of the one they used to show of little boys playing with dinosaurs.. WHEN were these ad-people born???

Well, I totally agree with you and think you’re just WONDERFUL – as usual. But I also found the final scene of that ad a bit of worry for different reasons. The girl agrees that the boy has won their argument, but takes the weetabix anyway because ‘the biggest is always the winner.’ This is an attitude that we see wreaking havoc and causing suffering to disadvantaged people everywhere. It’s easily just as bad as the gender war issue.
There’s a good chance that that little boy could grow up to be bigger, taller and physically stronger than his older sister. Then, is she going to accept that he can win every argument and take anything he wants for the rest of their adult lives?Lady Demelza recently posted…on the Unbearable Pain of Being Alive

Rach S pointed me in your direction after a posted a ranty Facebook status about this horrid advert. After spending a lot of time reinforcing “soft hands” with my son, I was devastated to see an advert where a boy could be quite frankly violent towards the horribly stereotyped girls, and towards the dog!
Yup, my son quite likes Spider-Man (thanks, nursery…), but he equally loves Peppa Pig, Hello Kitty and all things sparkly, and that a company would make an advert like this in 2013 saddens me to no end.
Thanks for a great blog, I’ll be following from now on!

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